Don't Let Them Make Up Your Mind
by Serena Thorn
Summary: Sylaire. Claire has two choices. Her father or her lover. The only catch is she has to make up her own mind. Oneshot


_Disclaimer: Heroes is not owned by me, but by Tim Kring. I'm simply borrowing these characters for non-profit entertainment._

_A/N: Okay, this one was inspired by Urge Overkill's cover of "Girl, You'll be a Woman Soon" but I don't really do song fics in the typical sense, and though I'm not too happy with how this came out, I hope you enjoy. As always, Claire and Sylar aren't related in my universe.  
_

* * *

"Don't let them make up your mind," Sylar had told Claire. He had said those words to her just moments after she had told him how her parents, namely her father, had fought with her after having discovered their formally secret love affair.

She was eighteen, soon to be on her own. Or at least legally allowed to be on her own and make certain decisions for her life.

He just happened to be one of them.

Claire couldn't be sure what had come first. The screaming, the fights, her parents' suspicion or living her father's worst nightmare by finding herself in his greatest adversary's arms nightly.

As it was now, she trusted the man she had once feared. She had even discovered for herself that fear truly could turn to love. There was nothing she wouldn't do for him and she knew that he would do anything for her in return. Even if that meant letting her go.

That was the side of him she had realized she couldn't be without. Yet in this case she couldn't help but loathe it at the same time.

She didn't want him to let her go. Despite being otherwise indestructible, she honestly felt she couldn't survive without him now.

Mr. Bennet had threatened Claire, he had surely threatened Sylar. Still calling him a "monster" every chance he got, reminding him of every one of his misdeeds. His murders, how he had terrorized Claire, the fact he had no control over the things he had done.

In fact it had become so routine Sylar had begun to wonder when he would come up with new material to throw in his face. After all he had begun to change, learning to control his abilities to where he hadn't even had the urge to kill anyone in some time. Though it was the reminders of how he had once had Claire so terrified of him that hurt him the most. And he knew that Noah knew it.

The fact of the matter was it had been because of Noah himself having lied to Claire for so long and for having so plainly used her for his own advancement within The Company that she had turned to Sylar.

At first neither had expected her to come back after her first visit to his cell. But she had, the very next night in fact. And again the night that followed. To where finally she didn't seem to be capable of stopping herself.

Claire found herself staying longer and longer each night that she went to him. At first they both wondered if it wasn't just because she didn't want to be alone with her father. Though as the nights continued to pass both began to realize it had nothing to do with Noah.

Come dawn, despite knowing she would have to or risk being caught, she didn't want to leave him. Add to that she honestly never seemed happier or felt more at peace than when she would fall asleep in his arms.

Though it internally threatened to kill his own immortal self, Sylar continued to remind Claire that it was her own life and that it was her mind to be made up, not her father's and not even his.

The next day Claire once again snuck into her lover's cell, still fully aware of every danger as she knew her father would know where she had gone.

After all she had just run out of the house after yet another screaming match. She could only hope she would manage to get to the facility before he could.

"Claire -"

"I'm getting you out of here," she broke in.

"You can't," he told her, pulling back, fearing for both of their lives should they leave like this.

"He'll be here any minute and I'm not going to let him kill you."

"Claire, we can't die. At least -"

"There is the one way and he knows it. That's why it has to be now, before he has the chance."

She was nearly crying now and he could see it. Then again she didn't seem to be trying to hide it.

"Are you sure?" he finally sighed, turning her towards him.

"I'm not going to let them make up my mind. I chose you the minute I first walked in here and I'm not about to have them try to change that now. Every time I've come here it's been for you, I can't take not having you with me and I just -"

"Shh," he told her, almost too calmly given the circumstances. He knew the ways he had died for her, the nights he had laid comatose on the floor of his cell while dreaming of only her. The things he had been forced to listen to from her father, the graphic details of the nightmares she'd had of him before the night he had met her at her bedroom door.

Still in not so many words both of them had been made to listen to Noah tell them that he wasn't Claire's "kind," that she deserved better and would find it outside of a so-called monster.

When Sylar felt Claire had calmed down enough, wanting her to be in some sort of a rational state when they escaped the facility, he found himself following her out.

Sure the posted guards had done what they were told and trained, yet given that they weren't used to dealing with those whom bullets were no match for they quickly found themselves with empty guns while their targets continued running out into the night.

Claire and Sylar knew that they would likely be running now for the rest of their lives. Or at least the lives of her father and those he would hire to track them down and retrieve them.

None of that mattered to them now though. Not as they thought of how much better it felt to be in some sort of the open with one another with next to no fear. They knew their shared strength and that those who dared to take them back would deserve what came to them.

The End


End file.
